


You're Making the Typical Me Break My Typical Rules

by martianwahtney



Series: Tony Stark Bingo 2019 [7]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Powers, Clint Barton Is a Very Big Asshole, Female Tony Stark, Fluff and Angst, Hard of Hearing Clint Barton, Hurt/Comfort, Multi, Natasha Romanov Is a Good Bro, Protective Harley Keener, Protective James "Bucky" Barnes, Protective James "Rhodey" Rhodes, Smitten James "Bucky" Barnes, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-27
Updated: 2019-06-02
Packaged: 2020-03-20 00:59:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 13,973
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18981949
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/martianwahtney/pseuds/martianwahtney
Summary: Toni Stark knew she and James Barnes were soulmates the moment she saw him. The electric blue lines of the arc reactor seemed to glow against his skin, just like hers did. But she kept her mouth shut and she made him a new arm and even engraved his old soulmarks onto his new metal arm.James Barnes knew he and Toni were soulmates nearly a year after they met. She’d been neck deep in one of her car engines and it was impossible to miss the red star on her arm- his star on her arm.Clint Barton knew he, Toni Stark, and James Barnes were soulmates the second Toni had flipped over her arm to show him a purple arrow that stretched from the crease of her elbow to the palm of her hand. The same arrow he had been born with.Alternatively, where Toni tries until she doesn’t, where James keeps his distance until he doesn’t, and Clint won’t let himself fall until he does.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> First chapter for my IMBB is up! keep on the look out for chapter two (next sunday) with art from the amazing Mei (letsallsleepoverwork)
> 
> cofill for:  
> TSB: R1- Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier  
> Winteriron Bingo: O5- Team Fic

Toni smiled up at James, easy and happy.  
  
“Wha’s that smile for, Doll?”  
  
Toni just pulled him down and kissed him.  
  
“I didn’t come home to see this bullshit,” Rhodes warned, as he walked into the living room.  
  
“I’m going to ignore that, considering you just called the Tower home,” Toni replied.  
  
Rhodes just shook his head. He sat down next to Toni, who discarded her tablet to climb onto his lap and cling to him like a koala.  
  
“Missed you too, Tones,” he said quietly.  
  
“How long do you get to stay?” she asked.  
  
“Few weeks,”  
  
She beamed at that. Her honey bear didn’t get nearly enough time off work for her liking.  
  
“Any chance Carol is swinging by?”  
  
Rhodes smiled softly at the mention of his soulmate.  
  
“Disgusting,” Toni teased fondly.  
  
“Fuck off, Tones,”  
  
She stuck her tongue out at him.  
  
“Carol is coming by on Friday,” he told her.  
  
“Are you still going to have time for Carol's party?” she asked.  
  
“Tones, the party isn’t for another couple of months,” Rhodes reminded her gently.  
  
“I am well aware of that, James Rhodes, but that wasn’t the question I asked,”  
  
Next to her, James looked up at the ceiling with a smirk on his face.  
  
“We’re stationed at the Pentagon for the rest of the year Tones; we’ll drive up for the weekend. Carol won’t miss the party,” Rhodes assured her.  
  
“That’s all you had to say, honeypot!”  
  
Rhodes let out a long suffering sigh and shook his head.

  
  


James always found that whenever Rhodes visited the Tower, it turned him and Toni into truly foolish geniuses who liked to invent whatever tragic invention popped into their heads.  
  
The last time they had gotten together they “fixed” the toaster so that it burned toast if you didn’t say thank you and please. The Toaster Incident was the reason James was not at all surprised when the Roomba that Toni kept in the lab had a shark fin that retracted when it went under things. He also wasn’t surprised to find Toni and Rhodey laughing their asses off at it.  
  
“What is this?” James asked.  
  
“SHARKY,”  
  
“And what does that stand for?”  
  
“Smart Horizontal Automated Robot Kleaner,”  
  
“And the Y?”  
  
“Yes,” Toni and Rhodes said together, before dissolving into another fit of laughter.

  
  


“Let’s get coffee,” Toni said suddenly.  
  
“We got coffee here,”  
  
“I want different coffee,”  
  
James lifted his head to stare at her.  
  
“Let’s try that place Nat talks about,” she said.  
  
James let his head drop back down on the couch cushion.  
  
“I hope you’re not using coffee as an excuse to avoid paperwork,” he warned.  
  
He heard Toni draw in a wounded gasp and he grinned.  
  
“I would _never_ -!”  
  
She cut herself off with her own laughter. James grinned at the sound of it.  
  
“It’s halfway finished. I need a pick-me-up,” she said.  
  
“We have coffee here,”  
  
“I don’t _want_ coffee here. That’s why I suggested we go outside for coffee. Besides I haven’t gone outside since… fuck, since Rhodes got here and that was like a week ago,”  
  
“‘Lright doll,” he said.  
  
“Yay!”  
  
She leapt off of the stool, and bounded over to the couch James was lounging on.  
  
“Let’s go.”  
  
He hauled himself to his feet and followed his soulmate out of the lab and toward outside coffee.  
  
Once they were out of the Tower, James slipped into bodyguard mode. The public didn’t know they were soulmates; they simply thought that James was Toni’s bodyguard, and that was just fine with them.  
  
James opened the door for her and she slipped past him, murmuring her thanks as she did so.  
  
“Oh, this is quaint,” she said.  
  
“‘Quaint’?”  
  
“I said it,”  
  
James grinned and followed her to the counter. The barista was blonde and covered in bruises; he was working on something in the cash register, shirt sleeves rolled up to reveal his forearms. And there, on the inside of the man’s arm, was a purple arrow. James stared at it for a moment before looking at Toni, the mark not escaping her sharp gaze.  
  
“You going to order?” the barista asked.  
  
“When is your next break?” Toni asked instead.  
  
“What?”  
  
Toni turned her arm over to show him the arrow on her arm. The barista stared at it for a moment before looking at Toni. He didn’t look too pleased.  
  
“Three hours. Now, I have a lot of customers,”  
  
James gently touched her elbow.  
  
“Two large black coffees,” he said to the barista, who gave a short nod before ringing them up. James pulled out his phone as Toni paid and sent a short text to JARVIS to let him know they had found their third soulmate and to start looking into him.  
  
“He’s cute,” Toni said, as she sat down at a table near the counter.  
  
The barista was… blonde and bandaged.  
  
“He strikes me as a walkin’ disaster,”  
  
Toni smiled at him. She took a sip of her scalding coffee and let her gaze settle back on the barista.  
  
“I should ask JA-”  
  
“J’s already on it,” James told her.  
  
She seemed to relax at that, her gaze still on the barista. James was content to just watch her watch him.  
  
“Honey,” she said, her eyes shifting back to James.  
  
“Yes, doll?” he asked with a soft smile.  
  
“If he strikes you as a ‘walkin disaster’, then what the hell do I strike you as?” she demanded, amusement clear in her voice.  
  
“Darlin’, you struck me as a functional walkin’ disaster,”  
  
“Sweet talker,” she scoffed, but there was a blush on her cheeks. James grinned at the sight of it.  
  
“Did I ever tell you I tripped over Dum-E once?” she asked suddenly.  
  
James raised an eyebrow and Toni nodded.  
  
“It may sound impossible to trip over a giant metal robot that I created, but I wasn’t paying attention and tripped right over his base,”  
  
James fought back an amused grin.  
  
“By ‘wasn’t paying attention’, do you mean, sleep deprived?”  
  
“No,” she pouted.  
  
“But Dum-E got so worked up about it that he makes little noises when I’m near him and he thinks I’m not paying attention so I know where he is,” she said.  
  
“He’s a good bot.”  
  
“Damn right he is.”  
  
The smile that Toni wore was proud as all hell. For as much as she threatened to send the bots to a McDonalds, she was always beyond proud of them.  
  
“I was at R&D the other day and they’re starting to work on prosthetic upgrades; you want to come with me next time I go down there?” Toni asked suddenly.  
  
“Yeah, I can do that,”  
  
They discussed the prosthetics and drank their coffee while they waited for the barista to get done with his shift. James felt his phone buzz and he glanced at it; JARVIS was finished his background check on the barista. His name was Clinton Francis Barton.  
  
“That J?” Toni asked.  
  
James nodded.  
  
“Anything we should be worried about?”  
  
“No red flags,” he told her.  
  
She nodded, chewing on her bottom lip as she did so.  
  
“Do you know how sensitive you’re going to make the leg prosthetics?” he asked, drawing her attention back to prosthetics so she wouldn’t worry herself about Clint.  
  
The next time they were interrupted, it was because of the barista himself.  
  
“You’re Toni Stark,” the barista said as he sat down in the third chair.  
  
“Yes,”  
  
“And you’re obviously not her bodyguard,” he added to James.  
  
“James Barnes,” he said as he made a point to rub his left shoulder where the star soulmark was. Which made the weird round thing on his chest Toni’s mark.  
  
“Clint,” the barista said with a short nod.  
  
“I only have a fifteen minute break, so let’s get this over with,” he said.  
  
James cocked his head to the side, eyes icy.  
  
“We should go to dinner then. James and I know a nice-”  
  
“That’s fine,” Clint said, his shoulders drawn tight, fingers drumming against his leg.  
  
“Do you know Natasha? She’s always talking about a barista she knows here, which is actually why we decided to drop by. She talks this place up a lot,” Toni said.  
  
“Yeah, I know Tasha,” Clint responded.  
  
James just watched as everything Toni tried to say to him was met with a short response. Soulmate or not, James didn’t like him very much.  
  
“So, we’re having movie night tonight at the Tower. Nat will be there. I can send a car to-”  
  
“I’ll catch a ride with Tash,” he said, brushing her offer off.  
  
Toni stared at him for a moment before giving a brief nod.  
  
“Any snacks? I always have J put in a big order for movie night,”  
  
“I can bring my own,”  
  
“That works too,” she said.  
  
He glanced at his watch and pushed himself to his feet.  
  
“My break’s up,” Clint told her, before she could say anything else.  
  
“Oh. Well, it was nice to meet you,” Toni said.  
  
“Yea,”  
  
“So, for dinner, does Saturday work? I can clear our schedules,” she said suddenly, almost immediately perking up at her own idea.  
  
“Sure,”  
  
Then, he was gone. Toni looked at James to find an icy expression on his face.  
  
“James?”  
  
“Seem’s kinda assholey,”  
  
“Wow, sweetheart, tell me what you really think,” she drawled.  
  
James arched an eyebrow and leaned back in his seat.  
  
“He might be having a bad day,”  
  
“Bad enough to be rude to his soulmates?” James shot back.  
  
“You’re in a mood today, honey,”  
  
He just set his coffee down in response. Toni reached out to grab his hand and gave it a gentle squeeze.  
  
“You ready?” she asked.  
  
He gave a short nod.  
  
“I wanna take a look at those prosthetics,”  
  
She nodded and followed him out of the coffee shop. James read up on Clint Barton as Toni drove. He grew up in the circus with an older brother called Barney; he was an archer who never seemed to miss his mark, then due to unknown reasons, he left the circus and took up residence in Manhattan.

  
  


“I mean, _Jesus_ , look at what she’s fuckin’ done,” Clint grumbled as he cleaned the espresso machine.  
  
Kate Bishop glanced at him and shook her head.  
  
“Why on earth does it matter? You’re going to a movie night, not marrying her,” Kate said.  
  
“And I have to sit there in that Tower while she flashes her wealth. ‘Any snacks? I always have J put in a big order’,” he mocked.  
  
“Who the fuck is J anyway?”  
  
Kate didn’t bother responding. Clint was in a mood and she had a feeling there wasn’t anything she could do to get him out of it.  
  
“Clint! It’s time to go!” Nat yelled as she burst into the shop.  
  
“I changed my mind,”  
  
“I brought you a change of clothes,” she continued as if he hadn’t spoken.  
  
“I don’t want to go,”  
  
“Tragic,” she said, as she pushed the clothes into his arms and pushed him off in the general direction of the bathrooms.  
  
“There’s no way this ends well,” Kate said, after he disappeared into the bathroom.  
  
“He’s still pissy?” Nat asked.  
  
“Yep,”  
  
“I hope for his sake he doesn’t piss her off to much,” Nat muttered.  
  
“Toni’s pretty fucking unforgiving if she’s pushed too much,” she added.  
  
Clint stepped out of the bathroom, in the clothes Nat had brought for him.  
  
“Better,” she said.  
  
“Tash,” he whined.  
  
“I’m so glad you’re coming to movie night. I’ve been asking you to come for months,” she said, as if he hadn’t spoken.  
  
“Alright. Go clock out we gotta go,” she said.  
  
Clint did as he was told, mopey but dutifully. After he clocked out he followed Tasha to her car and continued to mope as she took him to Stark Tower. The Tower was much larger than he thought it would be. Natasha took him to the private elevator and swiped her pass.  
  
“Lighten up, Barton,” she warned as the elevator took them to the communal floor.  
  
The doors opened with a soft _ding_ and Nat pulled him from the cab. The communal floor was all angles and glass.  
  
“Oh, good, you’re here!”  
  
Toni scrambled over the to tackle Nat into a hug.  
  
“Did J find my snacks?” Nat asked as the two parted.  
  
“Yes,”  
  
To Clint surprise, Nat swore in Russian.  
  
“Have to do better than some obscure Russian treats to trip up my baby boy Natatat,” Toni said smugly.  
  
“Hi,” she said to Clint, shooting him a shy smile.  
  
“Hi,”  
  
“Let’s get you introduced to everyone then. So, you know James. That’s Steve, Sam, Rhodey, and Carol,” Toni introduced, pointing them all out.  
  
“What are we watching tonight?” Sam asked.  
  
“The only dinosaur movie worth watching,”  
  
“Jurassic Games,” Rhodey said with a snap of his fingers.  
  
“No,” Toni shot back as Carol laughed.  
  
Nat pulled Clint down onto the couch so he was sitting in between her and Toni with James on Toni’s other side.  
  
“J! Queue it up,”  
  
Almost instantly, the movie started to play on the flat-screen tv. Clint couldn’t fault her for her movie choice; Jurassic Park was one of his favorite movies. He could tell from the way the others quoted the movie that it was a favorite of theirs as well.  
  
“Huh,” Steve said quietly, as Ian Malcolm showed up.  
  
“What?”  
  
“Kinda looks like Loki’s sugar daddy,”  
  
“Rogers!”  
  
Steve held his hands up as Sam howled with laughter.  
  
“Five bucks to the person that gets him to say ‘life finds a way’,” Nat said.  
  
“You’re so on,”  
  
She tossed her red hair over her shoulder, a smirk on her face as if she’d already won the bet. Clint grinned and shook his head.  
  
“I could totally do that,” Toni muttered about five minutes later when Alan and Ellie saw a dinosaur for the first time.  
  
“Tones,” Rhodey warned.  
  
“Bruce would help me too; you know he would,”  
  
“Darlin’, there are 3 movies and 2 books explaining why that’s a terrible idea,” James told her.  
  
“You say that now, but wait till you’re cuddling a baby stegosaurus,”  
  
“Bad idea,” Sam said around a mouthful of popcorn.  
  
“Brilliant idea. JARVIS, text Bruce. Tell him about my idea,”  
  
“ _Yes, Ma’am_ ,”  
  
“He’s going to disagree with you,” Steve said.  
  
“He’s a mad scientist, like me. He’ll love it,” Toni replied.  
  
“Just play the damn movie,” Carol said before anything else could be said.  
  
The movie continued to play on, they were uninterrupted up until-  
  
“ God creates dinosaurs. God destroys dinosaurs. God creates Man. Man kills God. Man brings back dinosaurs,”  
  
“Dinosaurs kill man. Women inherit the Earth,” Toni, Carol, and Nat finished, identical smirks on their faces.  
  
“What a woman,” Carol said.  
  
Clint was only a little annoyed by how much they all talked through the movie. Although he had to admit some of the conversations were amusing, especially the one where they paused the movie for nearly ten minutes debating the similarities between Mr. Arnold and Nick Fury. Clint was absolutely convinced that Fury played Mr. Arnold by the end of the discussion. That, naturally, led to a discussion of whether or not a raptor could take Fury down as one had taken Mr. Arnold down.  
  
When the movie ended, Clint pushed himself to his feet and headed for the elevator. He wanted to go home and play with Lucky.  
  
“Hey!”  
  
He paused and turned to see Toni. James was hovering at the doorway behind her.  
  
“So I was thinking we could go to The Porch for dinner? Does tomorrow work?” Toni asked.  
  
Clint almost wanted to tell her that it didn’t work, but he also wanted to get dinner over sooner rather than later.  
  
“Sure,”  
  
“Seven sound good?”  
  
“Sure,” he said again.  
  
The elevator opened with a _ding_ and he stepped inside.  
  
“Bye!”  
  
“Bye,”  
  
“I hope you had-” the elevator doors shut before she could finish.  
  
“... fun,” she said quietly to the gilded doors.  
  
“Still a jackass,” James mused.  
  
Toni shook her head and returned to the living room where her friends were debating what they would rather die by, a T-Rex attack or a Raptor attack.  
  
“What do you think, Tones?”  
  
“Compy’s,”  
  
Sam threw popcorn at her.  
  
“Their bites are full of poison that would numb you! You don’t even feel it!” she protested, picking the pieces off herself and throwing them back at Sam.  
  
“Who picks next week?”  
  
“I do,” Carol said.  
  
Toni and Rhodes shared a similar look, full well knowing that Carol would pick something that would make them both vaguely irritated about the science fiction genre.  
  
“Thanks for the movie, Toni; I’ll trick JARVIS up next week,”  
  
“Sure you will, Natatat,”  
  
Sam and Steve left not long after Nat did, leaving just Toni, James, Rhodes, and Carol.  
  
“So. Bandaged blonde, then, huh?” Carol asked.  
  
James made a noise in the back of his throat, exchanging a look with Rhodes as he did so.  
  
“Yea,”  
  
“You should pick Jurassic Games,”  
  
“Stop bringing up that movie,”  
  
“Cinematic poetry,”  
  
Toni rolled her eyes and shook her head.  
  
“Night, platypus,”  
  
Toni winked at Carol before walking out of the room with James on her heels. 

  
  


The next day passed quickly. Toni was excited for dinner; James worried over it. He didn’t like how Clint acted toward them, and he doubted that it would be any better over dinner.  
  
“How do I look?” Toni asked.  
  
She wore a simple green shirt and a pair of jeans. James grinned at the sight of her.  
  
“Beautiful,”  
  
Toni flushed. She walked to him and straightened out his shirt. The excitement she had carried with her had turned to nervous energy, he could tell.  
  
“You look nice,”  
  
“Just nice?” he asked.  
  
“Fine. You look beautiful too,” she said.  
  
“Thanks, doll,”  
  
She pushed herself up to kiss him quickly.  
  
“ _To get to the restaurant on time, you should leave now Ma’am_ ,” JARVIS interrupted.  
  
“Guess it’s time,” 

  
  


They didn’t talk much on the ride to the restaurant, both of them too nervous to say much of anything. James tried to convince himself that it would be fine, if only to get himself into a more positive mindset before dinner started.  
  
“Here we are,” Toni said quietly, pulling James out of his own head.  
  
“You ok there?” she asked him.  
  
“Always,” James assured her.  
  
She flashed him a grin. James offered his arm out to her and she took it. He was not surprised to find that Clint wasn’t there.  
  
They made smalltalk until they were joined by Clint.  
  
“Thanks for meeting us,” Toni said as Clint sat down.  
  
James couldn’t help but note that the man was ten minutes late to their date. He wasn’t impressed.  
  
“I would have taken you someplace more extravagant but I wasn’t sure if-“  
  
“If I could afford it?” Clint sneered.  
  
Tony winced. If Clint hadn’t been staring at the woman he wouldn’t have caught the movement.  
  
James watched the spark he loved so much die in Toni’s eyes at Clint’s biting words. Had they not been in public, James would have ripped the other man’s head off. Soulmates or not. Against his better judgement he stayed quiet. If he made a scene there was a chance someone would recognize Toni, and James wasn’t ready to be thrown to the hounds.  
  
Toni had been more than respectful of James’s wish to keep their relationship hidden from the paparazzi. She understood he wasn’t ready for that.  
  
“If,” Toni started quietly.  
  
“If you were comfortable being outed to the press,” she finished.  
  
Clint barely managed against rolling his eyes. He had seen the photos of Stark and her string of lovers all dining out at world famous restaurants.  
  
“The press already thinks that James is my bodyguard, there’s no telling what label they would put on you,” she added a bit stiffly.  
  
It was then that the waitress stopped by to take their order. The next fifteen minutes was filled with what James could only describe as painfully awkward smalltalk. He was liking Clint less and less by the minute, and he could tell Toni was getting a little disheartened as well. While painfully awkward, it was going fine up until they got their food and Toni asked Clint what it was like growing up on the road.  
  
“What? Did you research me or something?” Clint hissed.  
  
“I did,” James said cooly.  
  
“Had Toni’s AI look into you,” he added, icy gaze boring into Clint’s, almost daring him to say something about it.  
  
“Wasn’ gonna let jus’ anyone into her life,”  
  
“So you had some computer program look into me instead of asking me yourself?” Clint snapped back.  
  
“Because you’re so easy to talk with,” James scoffed.  
  
“James-”  
  
“Well, I think that’s enough for tonight,” James cut in, pushing himself to his feet. He offered his arm out to Toni and slowly she took it, an unreadable expression on her face.  
  
“See you around. Maybe,”  
  
James pulled Toni from the table before she could say anything else. He ushered her to their car and drove them back to the Tower, something she usually protested but didn’t. Since her parents’ car wreck, Toni always preferred to drive herself places; it was rare when she didn’t insist upon driving.  
  
Toni didn’t say a word during the drive home and James didn’t pressure her to say anything. He didn’t feel much like talking either. Clint had been a complete ass. Toni kept up her silence as he parked the car, as they rode the elevator up to the penthouse, and even as they started to get ready for bed.  
  
“I shouldn’t have got my hopes up,” she said at last, tugging one of his hoodies on.  
  
“Doll, don’ say that,”  
  
“Damn lucky enough that I got _one_ soulmate,” Toni carried on as if James hadn’t spoken.  
  
James slid off the bed to wrap Toni up in his arms, holding his genius tightly.  
  
“You didn’ deserve an ounce of his bullshit,” James said quietly.  
  
“But-”  
  
“No,”  
  
She turned in his arms to hug him back, her eyes screwing shut.  
  
“Ok,” she conceded.  
  
“Ok,” she said again as James held her a little tighter.  
  
“J, pull up that show she likes. The one with the psychic,” James said, pulling away from her and steering her to bed.  
  
“You say that like you don’t like it,” she muttered.  
  
“I’ve heard it both ways,”  
  
The smile on her face made his heart beat a little faster.

  
  


Nat was not looking forward to her weekly coffee meet up with Steve and James. Clint had been more than pissed about the date and she knew James would be just as upset, if not more.  
  
“Should I ask how it went? Or are we going to pretend it didn’t happen?” Nat asked, fingers picking at the coffee lid.  
  
“I don’ like ‘im,” James growled, swatting at the stray hairs that escaped his bun.  
  
“Buck!”  
  
“He’s your soulmate,”  
  
“No soulmate of mine is gonna disrespect Toni like that,”  
  
Steve and Nat looked at each other. Toni Stark had been instrumental in getting James back to the real world after what happened overseas. James had come back down an arm and Toni Stark had stepped in to give him one back.  
  
“She does have a reputation,” Steve said, knowing he was going to incur the wrath of his best friend.  
  
“That she hates more than anythin’,” James spit back.  
  
Steve held up his hands, a gesture of surrender.

  
  


“You good Tones?” Rhodes asked, nudging his best friend. He had heard from James about the very disastrous date that Toni, James, and Clint had been on.  
  
“I’m tired,” she said.  
  
“Is this about Clint?”  
  
There was a moment where nothing happened and then Toni clambered onto his lap, tucking herself against him.  
  
“I’ve done this before,” Toni said tiredly.  
  
“I’ve chased people who want nothing to do with me, and no matter how much I try… it’s not enough. I chased Sunset. Ty. Even my own god damn father. And I’m all done,”  
  
Rhodes kissed the top of her head.  
  
“You’re gonna be ok, Tones,” he said.  
  
“I know,”  
  
“I have my platypus,”  
  
Rhodes hugged her a little bit tighter.  
  
“Damn right you do,”  
  
“I think I’ll invite him to Carols party,” she said suddenly.  
  
“You just said-”  
  
“Last ditch effort. If he still feels like being a dick then it’s on him,” she assured him.  
  
“That’s my girl,”  
  
Toni beamed at the affection in his voice.  
  
“Alright enough of this shit. It’s time for me to personally kick your ass in a rousing game of Mario Kart and or Super Smash Bros,” she said.  
  
“In your dreams Tones,” Rhodes scoffed.

  
  


James stepped onto the communal floor to find Toni and Rhodes finishing up what seemed to be a particularly violent round of Mario Kart.  
  
“Totally kicked his ass,” Toni said proudly.  
  
“In _one_ game,” Rhodes stressed.  
  
“So?”  
  
“We played 10,”  
  
James snorted and shook his head.  
  
“You good Tones?” Rhodey asked.  
  
“Always platypus,”  
  
Rhodes rubbed her arm and kissed her forehead.  
  
“Night Tones,”  
  
“Night platypus,”  
  
Toni followed James up to the penthouse and started to get ready for bed. She was asleep within minutes of getting into bed.  
  
James traced the purple arrow with his metal thumb. Toni barely stirred. James remembered the first time he had seen Toni’s soul marks. It had been months after they’d met, months after Toni had fitted him with his new arm.  
  
First he had seen the arrow. It was purple and it stretched from the crease of her elbow to his wrist, tip brushing her palm. James had recognized it instantly as the same one he used to have on his left arm.  
  
Then he had seen the red star on Toni’s arm. James’s star. James stared at the two marks for a long time. They both had the star, the arrow, the only thing missing was something circular on Toni’s chest.  
  
So James had asked and Toni admitted everything. Toni’s soulmark was the arc reactor, it had been marked on her chest even before Afghanistan. It was the most beautiful things James had ever seen.  
  
Toni had her reasons for not telling James. The arm, James’s recovery, not wanting James to feel like he owed Toni anything, and James had understood. And she had understood why they never came out as soulmates, James didn’t want the press to hound him, he wasn’t ready. She knew that and understood and never pressed the subject.

  
  


It didn’t take much longer for Toni to start planning Carol’s party. James helped where he could but ultimately is was all Toni’s thing. The kids were coming in from MIT, all of Rhodey and Carol’s Air Force friends would be there, and a number of Toni’s friends as well.  
  
“I can’t believe it’s been five years,” Toni said.  
  
“Which layout?” she asked before James could say anything.  
  
She swiped through three different layouts for the party.  
  
“Second,” he said instantly.  
  
“Number two it is,”  
  
“The caterer has been contacted, J ordered everything we need for drinks, I invited Clint to the party, the kids know their jobs-”  
  
“I’m sorry, what was that?” James asked.  
  
“The kids know their jobs. How much should I overpay them this time-”  
  
“Toni,”  
  
She ran her fingers through her hair.  
  
“I invited Clint,”  
  
“Doll, after everythin’ he’s said…”  
  
“One last try. He wants to keep being a dick, then it’s on him,” she said, trying to sound ok with her response.  
  
“One last chance,” James agreed.

  
  


“You’re coming to the party,” Nat said in her usual no-nonsense tone.  
  
Clint sighed.  
  
“I’d really rather not, Nat,”  
  
“When has that ever stopped me?”  
  
He turned to look at her; she just grinned at him, looking the picture of innocence.  
  
“Fine,”  
  
“Great! I have clothes in the car,”  
  
“Of course you do,” he muttered.  
  
Nat hung around ‘til his shift was over which meant there was no way Clint could get out of going to the party. He didn’t even know why Toni was having the party in the first place. He tried to recall if she’d told him why she was having the party but he was drawing a blank.  
  
“Shift’s up,”  
  
“Go clock out. I’ll bring you your clothes,”  
  
Clint did as instructed, because if he didn’t, Natasha would get mad at him. And she was scary when she was mad. When he exited the backroom, he found Nat waiting for him with a bundle of clothes. She pushed them into his arms and pointed at the bathroom. Once again, he did as instructed and changed into a nice button down shirt and a pair of jeans that weren’t well worn, neither of which he recalled buying.  
  
“Better,” Nat said when he returned to her.  
  
“Can we go now?”  
  
“Excited to see your significant others?” she teased.  
  
Clint rolled his eyes.  
  
“Nat,”  
  
She grinned at him and ushered him to her car.  
  
“Let’s go, shall we? This is always the bash of the year and I don’t want to be late,” she said.  
  
By the time they reached the Tower the communal floor was full of people. Clint couldn’t help but notice that there seemed to be a lot more military personnel than he was expecting. He pushed his way through the people and reached the bar.  
  
“What do you got?” he asked.  
  
The bartender gestured to a selection of juices.  
  
“No alcohol? Why? Stark too cheap to spring for this many people?” Clint sneered.  
  
The bartender, a young man with fluffy brown hair, looked taken back. A scowl quickly formed on his face as he took a step back from the bar.  
  
“Ms. Stark doesn’t allow alcohol on the premises while Captain Danvers is here. And certainly not when we’re celebrating Carol getting her five year sobriety chip,” the bartender snapped.  
  
Clint flinched back as if he’d been physically struck.  
  
“That’d be a pretty shitty move considering Toni is Carol’s sponsor,” a new voice mused.  
  
Clint turned to see Nat. She didn’t look very impressed with him. Clint held up his hands in surrender.  
  
“I’m an asshole, I know,” he said.  
  
“You should probably start thinking before you say things that make you sound like the world’s biggest jackass,” she said to him.  
  
“You’ve known me my whole life I’m never going to do that,” Clint said.  
  
Nat just shook her head.  
  
“So… she just helped Carol get sober?” he asked curiously.  
  
“About a year after Afghanistan,” Nat said with a nod.  
  
“I thought Toni was a big partier too,”  
  
“She was,” a new voice stated.  
  
James slid up to Clint’s other side. His grey gaze locked on Toni.  
  
“She hasn’t touched a thing since Afghanistan,” Natasha added.  
  
Clint nodded slowly.  
  
“How come she doesn’t celebrate that?” Clint asked at last.  
  
“She don’ think she deserves it,” James muttered before pushing on through the crowd.  
  
Clint watched him go.  
  
“He doesn’t like me very much, does he?”  
  
Nat grinned and squeezed his hand.  
  
“Probably because you’re an asshole to Toni. I think he really likes her,” she teased.  
  
“Oh ha ha,”  
  
“And that bartender you bad mouthed Toni to?”  
  
There was sinking feeling in his stomach.  
  
“What about him?”  
  
“His name is Harley. Toni adopted him when he was 13. He and his soulmates are working tonight,”  
  
“What the fuck,”  
  
Nat laughed, a smug smile on her face.  
  
“Take my advice, Clint. Push every preconceived notion of you out of your head. And get to know who she is _now_ ,” Nat said before slinking into the crowd.  
  
Clint did nothing but stare after her in shock.

  
  


“What do _you_ know about the kids?” Clint hissed to Natasha when he had recovered from the shock of learning that Toni had a kid- almost an hour later.  
  
“Peter Parker lives with his Aunt. He idolizes Toni, calls her Ms. Stark even when Toni, Harley and MJ tell him to call her Toni. MJ has a variety of nicknames but she’ll go as far as Ms. Toni. And Harley will pull out mom or dad or Toni as he pleases,” Nat told him.  
  
“Peter is studying biochemical engineering. Harley is mechanical engineering. And MJ is double majoring in women’s history and art,” Natasha added.  
  
“You could ask Toni about them,”  
  
Clint waved the suggestion off.  
  
“The one thing I would advise against. Do not go against the kids. Just leave them alone. Toni can get vindictive,”  
  
“What does that mean?” Clint asked.  
  
“Last time someone hurt Harley, Toni came within seconds of pulling him out of school- high school at the time- and pulling funding from it. James intervened. He’s scary like that,”  
  
“That’s why you need to be careful, Clint,” she warned.  
  
“Why?”  
  
“You push her too much and she’s never going to come back,” Nat warned.  
  
Again, he watched her slink into the crowd. Toni Stark was a goddamn enigma. 

  
  


“Hey!”  
  
Toni smiled at the sight of him.  
  
“Hey,” he said quietly.  
  
“Thanks for coming,”  
  
“Thanks for inviting me,”  
  
His response seemed to throw her through a loop, a confused smile on her face.  
  
“Do you need anything?” she asked.  
  
“No- actually I do have a question,” Clint said quietly.  
  
“About?”  
  
“Why your kid and his soulmates are working right now,”  
  
Her eyebrows knit together and she cocked her head to the side, no doubt wondering how Clint knew she had a kid and that kid had soulmates.  
  
“Natasha knows everything,” he told her.  
  
“Right,” she said with a rueful smile.  
  
“They don’t like handouts,” she explained.  
  
“So I figure if I give them a job, I can overpay them and no one can get fussy about it,” she said.  
  
“I just worry about them, y’know?” she blurted, seeming surprised at her own confession.  
  
“I don’t want them to feel like they have to choose between paying for their education and having fun, I mean they’re so young,” her eyes softened as she caught sight of Harley.  
  
“But since they won’t just let me pay for things, I’m forced to resort to paying them to work for me,”  
  
“What other kind of work do you pay them for?” Clint asked.  
  
“Consulting on my latest designs mostly, though from MJ I pay her an exorbitant amount to send me drawings of Harley and Peter embarrassing themselves, she has a whole sketchbook of them looking miserable while they get scolded for forgoing proper lab procedures,” Toni said with a small smile.  
  
Clint nodded. For a while they didn’t say anything. They just watched the people milling about, a guest list that included high ranking military personnel and a handful of Carol and Toni’s civilian friends. Clint was acutely aware of every time their arms brushed together and the tingle that shot through his whole body every time it happened. He really didn’t know what to make of the reaction.  
  
“This is a nice party,” he told her.  
  
“Thank you!” the surprise in her voice nearly killed him.  
  
“Carol deserves to be celebrated,” she said.  
  
“So do you,” he found himself saying.  
  
Toni’s gaze shot to his, eyes guarded.  
  
“You’ve been sober for just as long, right?”  
  
“Because of Afghanistan,” she protested.  
  
“Well, yea. But every day after you got home you made the choice to keep going, and I think that is what is worth celebrating,” Clint pointed out.  
  
Whatever it was Toni was going to say was cut off by James Rhodes.  
  
“Tones, it’s time,” he said quietly.  
  
Toni grinned.  
  
“Be right back,” she said to Clint, then she was gone, vanishing into the crowd. 

  
  


She was not the Toni Stark he’d spent years reading about. She wasn’t the party girl, the rich show off, obnoxious woman the world painted her as. She sponsored people in AA, adopted kids and made sure they had more than enough money to live their life, she cared so goddamn much for people that Clint felt his heart constrict. She’d given him every chance in the world and all he had ever done was throw it back in her face.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clint gets over himself, James gets soft, and Toni is a damn goner.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TSB Fill: H1- First Kiss  
> WIB Fill: O4- Domesticity

Clint stared at the black glove that kept James’ metal hand covered. He’d never really gotten to see it up close and personal, but from the few times he had caught a glimpse of it he was constantly in awe of how beautiful it was.  
  
It had been a week since the party, Toni and James came into his coffee shop a few times since then and Clint thought he was making progress. He was really trying to get to know his soulmates, but he had done a lot of damage when he was an asshole, so he could be as patient as they needed.  
  
“You got it engraved?” Clint asked, remembering that both his arrow and James’ mark had been engraved in the metal.  
  
“Toni did,”  
  
James flexed his fingers carefully.  
  
“After everything that happened… I wanted something familiar back. It was just sheer luck that Toni happened to have the exact same soulmarks,” James said with a small smile.  
  
“You both keep yours hidden,”  
  
“Yea,” James agreed slowly.  
  
The door to the coffee shop opened and Toni stepped inside, her eye rimmed red.  
  
“Happy’s taking the kids back to school,” she said.  
  
Clint winced. He meant to apologize to Harley before he left for the whole party fiasco.  
  
“They’re gonna be fine, doll,” James said.  
  
“Breaks up,” Clint said quietly, vacating his seat so Toni could sit down.  
  
“Black coffee?” he asked quietly.  
  
“Make it a large,”  
  
He grinned at her and returned to his post behind the counter.

  
  


“I can’t come to the Gala, something came up at work,” Nat said, looking perfectly irritated with her excuse.  
  
“Oh no,”  
  
“But I’m sure Clint won’t mind taking my place,”  
  
Clint’s head shot up, shooting Nat a bewildered expression.  
  
“Right?”  
  
“I’m sure he doesn’-”  
  
“I don’t mind,” Clint said quietly.  
  
Toni and James glanced at each other before Toni turned to Clint.  
  
“Great! So the Gala is Saturday at eight. Can you get a suit by then?” she asked.  
  
“Yea,”  
  
Toni smiled at him, small and shy.  
  
“I’ll have Happy swing by your place then,”  
  
“You don’t have too. My shift ends at eight. I won’t be ready on time,” he said.  
  
“But I’ll be there,” he assured her as he saw her face fall.  
  
“Then we’ll see you there,”  
  
“Yea, I gotta get back to my shift,”  
  
Clint took another glance at Toni and James before he ducked behind the counter to continue with his shift. Nat looked distinctly satisfied with herself.  
  
“Now I’m nervous,” Toni muttered.  
  
“What are ya up to Nat?” James asked.  
  
“Just wanted to make sure you had someone to take my place,” Nat replied.  
  
James glanced at Toni for a moment before sitting back in his chair. He hoped whatever Nat was up to wouldn’t end badly.

  
  


Toni wore a golden dress with one long sleeve that covered her left arm. Clint stared at the sleeve for a few minutes, uncertain as to why he felt so unsettled by it. The sleeve covered both her soulmarks, his and James’s. The dress even covered her arc reactor.  
  
“She has her arm covered,” he said.  
  
James glanced at Toni, eyes softening as she smiled at the politician she was charming.  
  
“So I’ve noticed,” James agreed.  
  
“Why?” Clint blurted.  
  
James took a sip of his drink. Clint definitely was not staring at the way his throat moved when he swallowed.  
  
“‘Cause I asked her to,” James replied.  
  
“You… what? Why?”  
  
“I ain’t ready for the press to hound me. I asked her to keep my mark hidden an’ she’s been very understandin’,”  
  
James gently touched his chest, right where the arc reactor soulmark sat.  
  
“I keep her hidden too, jus’ in case,”  
  
Clint looked at Toni again. He’d been so wrong to assume she kept her arm covered because she was ashamed, she kept her marks covered to protect them, because James asked her too.  
  
“How long have you known you were soulmates?” Clint asked.  
  
“‘Bout five years,”  
  
His eyebrows shot up to his hairline.  
  
“Five years?”  
  
“S’not like she makes a public appearance outside of dressin’ up for charity events,”  
  
“At first she tried’ta use makeup to cover them up but the press jumped down her throat for disrespectin’ her soulmate like that,” James informed him.  
  
Clint made a vague ‘what the fuck’ gesture.  
  
“What the hell is the difference between using makeup and wearing clothes?” he demanded.  
  
James shrugged.  
  
“Dunno, I jus’ know she won’ use makeup anymore,”  
  
“How’d the press know about her arm?” Clint asked, eyebrows furrowing in concern.  
  
A growl escaped James’ lips.  
  
“An ol’ flame of hers let it slip that her marks were on her arm,”  
  
“What a dick,” Clint muttered.  
  
James flashed him a quick grin. His eyes caught on something behind Clint and he vanished into the crowd. Clint made no attempt to follow him.

  
  


“I’m so glad you could make it!” Toni said.  
  
The smile on her face made Clint weak at the knees. She offered her hand out to him and he took it. Her hand was warmed and calloused.  
  
“James is casing the perimeter,” she told him.  
  
“I was wondering why I haven’t seen him at your side,” Clint commented, teasing smile on his face.  
  
“These things make him anxious, he likes to make sure I’m safe,”  
  
“Unfortunately for me, the only thing I am in danger of is Justin Hammer seeing me,”  
  
“And this is you hiding? Subtle,”  
  
She laughed at that. It occurred to Clint at that very moment how badly he wanted to keep making her laugh.  
  
“Oh! Follow me, there’s someone I want you to meet,”  
  
Clint allowed Toni to pull him through the crowd of well dressed people till they got to a small table near the back corner. A woman stood at the table with a drink in her hand.  
  
“This is Bobbi Morse, she’s one of our biologists. Bobbi this is Clint Barton, he’s new to the Gala scene and I couldn’t think of anyone better suited to ease him into this,” Toni said in a rush.  
  
“You mean you couldn’t think of anyone better to sit with him and gossip?” Bobbi responded with a grin.  
  
“Well that too,”  
  
“I hate to introduce you and vanish, but Pepper will murder me if I don’t mingle properly,” Toni said, she delicately brushed off her golden dress.  
  
“How do I look?” she asked.  
  
In true Toni Stark fashion her dress was gold and her necklace was full of rubies.  
  
“Like a million bucks… literally,” Bobbi drawled.  
  
Toni winked at her and vanished into the crowd.  
  
“Cat got your tongue there Barton?” Bobbi teased as she took a sip of her drink.  
  
“Wha- w-hy would you- no!”  
  
She smirked around her straw.  
  
“Alright, so, you see that man over there in the truly heinous tie?” Bobbi asked, nodding to the man.  
  
Clint followed her nod to the man with a really god awful tie.  
  
“He’s one of the SI Board members, and I’m pretty sure he’s sleeping with the bartender,”  
  
“Does his wife know?” Clint asked, eyeing the woman at the man’s side.  
  
“She pretends not to,”  
  
Clint grinned wickedly.  
  
“Tell me more,”  
  
Bobbi did as instructed. She filled him in on who was who, what the biggest scandal was, all of it fascinating information that Clint was going to forget the second he left the gala.  
  
“Oh no,” Bobbi said suddenly, her attention caught on something behind Clint.  
  
He turned and scanned the crowd, almost instantly seeing what Bobbi was.  
  
There was a painfully polite smile on Toni’s face as she talked to a man with blonde hair with a well tailored suit. Her body was very slightly turned away from him. It was more than obvious she didn’t want to be near the man.  
  
James was nowhere in sight.  
  
_Shit_.  
  
“Who is that?” Clint asked.  
  
“Tiberius Stone, they had a thing in MIT, then they had a massive falling out,” Bobbi explained.  
  
“She clearly doesn’t like him,”  
  
“He’s a sleaze,”  
  
He couldn’t help but wonder if he was the man that told the press about where Toni’s soulmarks were. Clint downed the last of his drink and straightened his jacket.  
  
“Go get her tiger,” Bobbi teased.  
  
Clint flipped her the bird as he made his way to Toni. The closer he got to her the more he realized how uncomfortable she was.  
  
He gently touched Toni’s elbow. The once annoyed expression on her face softened instantly.  
  
“We’re taking here, buddy,” Ty sneered.  
  
Clint, however, didn’t look away from Toni. Instead he signed two words.  
  
“Bothering. You?”  
  
Toni grinned.  
  
“Yes,”  
  
“Dance?”  
  
“I would be honored,”  
  
Clint grinned and offered out his hand. He glanced at Tiberius, winked, and pulled Toni out to the dancefloor.  
  
“You just saved my life,” Toni said quietly as they started up an easy waltz.  
  
“I’m the best, I know,”  
  
The smile that tugged at her lips was beautiful.  
  
“Uh huh,” she agreed.  
  
“So how does a circus archer know how to waltz?” she asked.  
  
“Natasha,”  
  
After a moment of silence Toni nodded.  
  
“Makes sense,” 

  
  


James glanced at the dance floor and stopped dead at the sight of Clint dancing with Toni. There was a smile on her face and he was looking at her like she hung the god damn stars for him.  
  
“You’re _smitten_ ,” Bobbi teased, sliding up next to him.  
  
James scoffed.  
  
“He’s alright,”  
  
“Denial is cute on you Barnes,”  
  
“You’re a menace, Morse,”  
  
She beamed.  
  
“He seems like a good guy. Jumped to Toni’s defense when shitbag over there was talking with her,” Bobbi said with a nod to Tiberius Stone.  
  
James turned his sharp gaze to Toni’s ex.  
  
“Didn’ know he’d be here,”  
  
“You should tell him a thing or two,” Bobbi egged.  
  
James struggled against the smile growing on his face.  
  
“Menace,” he said as he strode toward Tiberius Stone.

  
  


“Oh dear,” Toni crooned, looking at something past Clint’s shoulder.  
  
Clint had to wait till they rotated to see what she had. The scene was impossible to miss. James and Tiberius were having what seemed to be a very pleasant chat.  
  
“James looks like he’s going to snap,” Toni said.  
  
“Well I hope he does,”  
  
Toni gazed up at him for a long moment as they continued their waltz.  
  
“You don’t even know him,” she said at last.  
  
“Anyone who makes you look that uncomfortable really doesn’t deserve much thought,”  
  
Toni looked at him for a moment, a small smile on her face.  
  
“Why the change of-”  
  
“Ms. Stark!”  
  
Toni parted from Clint, the moment broken.  
  
“Hello Senator,” she said.  
  
“Can I interrupt?”  
  
Clint offered Toni a small smile and backed away, he was almost glad she hadn’t been able to finish the question. He had no idea how to answer it. He turned from the dance floor and returned to Bobbi Morse.  
  
“How was the dance twinkle toes?” she asked.  
  
“You’re kind of a pain in the ass,”  
  
She laughed at that.  
  
“What other gossip do you have for me,”  
  
“The Senator your girl is dancing with,” Bobbi started, a smirk on her face.  
  
Clint nodded and listened to everything she told him. He spent a majority of the Gala with Bobbi, near the end they were joined by an irritated looking Toni and James.  
  
“I think it’s time for us to go. I mingled enough to keep Pep from murdering me,” Toni said.  
  
Clint followed them outside to the cars. Happy was waiting for James and Toni.  
  
“Let us know when you get home, ok?” Toni asked, hovering at the door of the car.  
  
“Uh-”  
  
“J, plug our numbers in,”  
  
In his pocket, Clint’s phone buzzed, an indication that their numbers had been put into his phone.  
  
“Night,”  
  
He watched them get into the car and Happy drove off. Clint got into his own car and headed home.

  
  


“Did that go well?” Toni asked quietly.  
  
“I think so,”  
  
“What’d you and Stone talk about?” she asked suddenly.  
  
James smiled at her, looking the picture of innocence.  
  
“Jus’ havin a friendly chat,”  
  
“You looked anything but friendly,”  
  
“Thought he might need some remindin’ that I don’ like him anywhere near you,” he said.  
  
“I also like it when he’s not anywhere near me,”  
  
Happy made a turn into the tower and Toni’s phone chimed. She glanced at it to see a text from Clint.  
  
“He’s home safe,” she told James.  
  
The car pulled to a stop, Toni and James got out and retired to the penthouse. It had been a long night and all Toni wanted to do was sleep.

  
  


Toni spent almost five days in her lab after the Gala. She had a timetable to keep up on, R&D projects to look over, and- of course- paperwork. James tried to tempt her out for coffee but even that didn’t work. So James let her work, kept the lab fridge stocked with her favorite snacks and made sure she always had some kind of coffee in the pot.  
  
He helped her with prosthetics when she asked and played with the bots when she was 10 projects in and speaking to herself in Italian.  
  
It was the sixth day when she forced herself away from the projects. She had very nearly caught up with everything she needed to do. Instead of finishing her work she took a scalding hot shower and slept for 15 hours.

  
  


Clint stepped into the Tower and glanced around, not seeing either Toni or James. After a shocking amount of thought he had texted James and asked to stop by the Tower as he hadn’t seen either James or Toni in nearly five days. James had shockingly agreed and now Clint was standing in the middle of Stark Tower, alone.  
  
“ _Sergeant Barnes is in the kitchen_ ,” JARVIS supplied helpfully.  
  
“Thanks,”  
  
Clint made his way to the kitchen and smiled at the sight of James- or he would have if it didn’t aggravate his split lip.  
  
“Why you always look so rough?” James asked.  
  
“And here I thought I looked amazing today,”  
  
“Well I didn’ say you didn’,” James shot back without missing a beat.  
  
“I’m just sayin’ you always look like you tumbled down a flight of stairs an’ I’m gettin’ a little worried,”  
  
Clint made a weak attempt to fight back the blush that climbed up his cheeks. The blush didn’t go unseen.  
  
“So? You fallin’ down stairs or wha’?” James asked.  
  
“My apartment complex is being controlled by the mob and rent is ridiculous,” Clint said.  
  
James stared at him for a long time, trying to put everything together. The mob. A banged up looking Clint. High rent.  
  
“You fightin’ the mob over rent?”  
  
“Not just my rent! The whole building!”  
  
James nodded slowly.  
  
“I ain’t got too much to do nowadays, I coul’ help you if you want,” James offered.  
  
“What about Toni?” Clint asked.  
  
“She don’ always need me ‘round. Contrary to what most people think, Toni can take care of herself jus’ fine,”  
  
“‘Sides, she’s sleepin’ off a five day work binge,” he added.  
  
“You want to help me kick the mobs ass,” Clint stated bluntly.  
  
“Ain’t got anythin’ better to do for the time bein’,”  
  
“Fuck it. Let’s kick their ass,” Clint said with a shrug.  
  
“We’ll be like Batman and Robin,” he added, a grin growing on his face.  
  
“Weird that you’d choose to be Robin in your own analogy,” James replied with a shit eating grin on his face.  
  
“I don’t want to do this anymore,” Clint said.  
  
James laughed.  
  
“Aw c’mon Barton you know you and Grayson are similar,”  
  
Clint rolled his eyes.  
  
“Batman is pretty bitchy,”  
  
James flipped him off.

  
  


“Where have you two been?” Toni asked.  
  
She was in her pajamas, casually leaning against the counter with a mug of coffee in her hands.  
  
“We fucked up the mob,”  
  
Even though the mug was covering her mouth it was impossible to miss the way her eyes crinkled. She took a sip of her coffee and physically worked the smile off her face.  
  
“Why?” she asked.  
  
“Rent control,” Clint replied, setting his bow and arrow on the counter.  
  
“Does this mean no one’s going to be messing up your pretty face anymore?” She asked.  
  
“That’s exac’ly wha’ it means, doll,”  
  
“Good,”  
  
Clint cleared his throat, cheeks turning a little pink.  
  
“Yes I think your face is pretty,” Toni added.  
  
Clint fumbled with the coffee maker, accidentally turning it off instead of having it pour him a mug.  
  
“Aw coffee… no,” he whispered.  
  
“Well, I have to get to the lab to draw up schematics for all the pretty things Pepper wants. You two can keep me company after you wash up,”  
  
Toni eyed them both before she left the kitchen.  
  
“Well,” Clint started as he grabbed his bow.  
  
“I’ll be back then,”  
  
“I think I got somethin’ that shoul’ fit you,” James said.  
  
Clint let go of his bow.  
  
“Lead the way then,”  
  
James showed him to a guest room and said he’d leave the clothes on the bed. It was the best shower Clint had ever taken. Water sprayed at him from nearly every direction, the water stayed hot the entire time, and he stepped out of the shower smelling like flowers. He couldn’t have asked for a better shower.

  
  


Toni was quick to grow restless, too caught up in her own nerves to fixate on one thing.  
  
“J?” she asked at last.  
  
“ _Yes, Ma’am_?”  
  
“Do you think he’s going to take up my invitation?”  
  
“ _He is currently in the shower_ ,” JARVIS told her.  
  
Toni glanced at his nearest camera, eyes narrowed.  
  
“Here?” she asked.  
  
“ _He expressed interest in seeing your lab so Sergeant Barnes allowed him to shower here_ ,”  
  
“Oh,” she said quietly, hating the warm blush she could feel crossing her face. He wanted to stay.

  
  


Clint stepped out of the bathroom and saw a neatly folded pile of clothes on the bed. A simple white t-shirt and a pair of dark sweats. The shirt fit him pretty well, but the sweats were a little big on him, he had to roll the waist up a few times so they wouldn’t fall down. He rubbed the towel over his hair and hung it up in the bathroom, unsure of what else to do with it.  
  
“Um… JARVIS?” he asked.  
  
“ _Yes, Mr. Barton_?”  
  
“Where exactly is her lab?”  
  
JARVIS lit the way for Clint, stopping at a set of stairs that descended down to what Clint assumed was a basement.  
  
“ _The Madams lab and garage is down there_ ,” JARVIS told him.  
  
Clint descended the stairs and faced a glass wall and door. The keypad lit up and the door swung open, allowing Clint to step inside.  
  
Toni was sitting criss cross on a bench, flicking through a holographic file. James was surrounded by three robots. Clint went to James first.  
  
“Meet Dum-E, U, and Butterfingers, Toni’s… other kids,” James introduced.  
  
“Amazing,” Clint whispered.  
  
The bot with the Dunce cone chirped at him.  
  
“Don’t you dare!” Toni called from her seat.  
  
The bot drooped.  
  
“Aw Toni no,” Clint whined.  
  
She turned to him, a small smile on his face.  
  
“This is what he gets for trying to poison me,”  
  
Clint took half a step away from the bot.  
  
“He put motor oil in her smoothie,” James explained.  
  
“Why does he put motor oil in smoothies?”  
  
“He forgets that humans can’t ingest it,” Toni said like it was a perfectly reasonable answer.  
  
“Why does he know how to make smoothies?”  
  
“He’s a learning bot! Built him in college. My first attempt at an AI. Sometimes he likes to make me smoothies when he thinks I’m not eating enough,” she said.  
  
“That’s a logical thing for a robot to do,”  
  
“He’s the best,” Toni said fondly.  
  
The bot let out a cheerful sounding beep at the praise. Toni grinned and settled back on the workbench and resumed flicking through the files. Clint decided to spend his time with Dum-E, U, and Butterfingers. They were adorable, kind of like puppies.  
  
He glanced at James to find him in a tank top, working on his metal arm. Clint glanced at his arrow, and then at the red star engraved into the metal.  
“So what is it?” Clint asked.  
  
“What’s what?” Toni asked, half paying attention to him and half paying attention to the holographic screen in front of her.  
  
“Your mark. What is it?”  
  
Toni froze. After a few long moments she turned to him. He found it unsettling to be under the full weight of her gaze.  
  
She grabbed the hem of her sweater and yanked it up to reveal a lacy bralette and- something round and glowing in the middle of her chest. Clint was instantly struck by the beauty of it, bright blue and circular, with a gleaming triangle in the middle.  
  
“I still don’t know what it is,” he found himself saying.  
  
“It’s an arc reactor,” she said as she pulled the MIT sweater back down.  
  
“Ok,” Clint said slowly.  
  
“But what is it?”  
  
“It’s an electromagnet that keeps shrapnel from crawling into my heart and killing me,”  
  
Clint blinked a few times.  
  
“Why the _absolute fuck_ do you have shrapnel in your chest?”  
  
At this, Toni gave a wry smile.  
  
“Afghanistan,” she said.  
  
“Afghanistan,” Clint repeated.  
  
Then it hit him like a ton of bricks. Toni had been abducted in Afghanistan while she was showing off some new weapon. No one heard a thing about her for three months. Then she just turned up in the middle of the Afghan desert with Colonel Rhodes as her rescuer. She’d never told anyone what happened to her during those three months.  
  
“A bomb- my bomb exploded next to me. To save my life a man named Ho Yinsen performed open heart surgery on me in the middle of a cave. Originally this was just an electromagnet powered by a car battery,” she said as she tapped the arc reactor gently.  
  
“For almost forty years I thought it was just some pretty shape. Now I know it was some kind of prophetic warning,” she added.  
  
“It’s beautiful,” Clint told her, for lack of anything better to say.  
  
Toni flushed and ducked her head.  
  
“Thank you,” she said quietly.  
  
Clint didn’t stay much longer, he ate dinner with them and then headed back to his apartment.

  
  


“Coffee?” Toni asked suddenly.  
  
James looked up from his arm and nodded slowly.  
  
“Thought you’d never ask,”  
  
The trip to the coffee shop seemed to take no time at all. Toni was surprised to find how empty it was for… whatever day and time it was. She wasn’t too sure.  
  
From the counter Clint waved at them.  
  
“One large coffee and one large mocha,” he called and waved them toward their usual seats.  
  
“I can’t handle him being nice,” Toni said quietly.  
  
“Doll-”  
  
“James it will _ruin_ my no blushing streak of almost a decade,”  
  
For a few moments James stared at her.  
  
“I know for a fact I made you blu-”  
  
“You can’t prove it,”  
  
“An’ I think Rhodes-”  
  
“That’s enough out of you I think,” Toni said.  
  
James laughed and winked at her. Toni shook her head, unable to keep the smile from her face. He was ridiculous.  
  
“Do we have anymore Gala’s to attend to this year?” she asked suddenly.  
  
“No,” James said after a moment of reviewing their schedule.  
  
She made a soft noise in the back of her throat.  
  
“Well there’s the Christmas Party,” he added.  
  
“That’s just for friends,”  
  
“We shoul’ do an ugly sweater party,”  
  
“We did that two years ago,”  
  
James raised an unimpressed eyebrow.  
  
“Onesies,” he said after a moment.  
  
“Absolutely,”  
  
Two coffees were placed on their table. They both looked up to see Clint.  
  
“Thank you,” Toni said quietly.  
  
Clint stood there for a moment, shifting his weight from leg to leg like he was gearing up to say something.  
  
“I just.. wanted to say sorry for how our first date went. I’d like to try again if that’s ok with you? My treat,” his words were rushed and choppy.  
  
Almost instantly Toni opened her mouth to protest that last bit, as Clint thought she would, but James wrapped his metal arm around her mouth, keeping her silent.  
  
“That’d be nice,” he said.  
  
Clint grinned.  
  
“Great! We can talk about it later at movie night- if there’s still a standing invite,”  
  
Toni pried the metal fingers away from her mouth.  
  
“Of course it’s still a standing invite! And you really don’t-”  
  
James had his hand over her mouth again, easy smile on his face.  
  
“We’ll see you there,” James said.  
  
The smile on Clint’s face grew as he stood. He gave an awkward wave and ducked behind the counter to continue his shift. James watched him for a moment, small smile on his face before he finally took his hand off of Toni’s mouth.  
  
“But… I’m a billionaire! He shouldn’t have to pay!” she hissed.  
  
“Honey,” James said slowly.  
  
“I think this is important to him. If he wants to pay then you have’ta let him,”  
  
She leaned back in her chair and pouted.  
  
“B’sides. Isn’t this wha’ you wanted? Him to try?”  
  
At last a tiny smile crossed her face.  
  
“It’s not dumb to get my hopes up right? I mean- you really think he’s trying?” she asked hopefully.  
  
“Yes, doll. I think he is,” James said to her.  
  
Toni took a long sip of her coffee, a smile growing on her face.  
  
“Huh,” she said at last.

  
  


“You coming to movie night tonight?” Nat asked.  
  
“Yea I think so, if I can close up on time,” Clint replied.  
  
Nat stared at him for a moment, a smile growing on her face. Clint knew he was in for some kind of hell.  
  
“What happened to your whole, ‘she’s so arrogant, Tash’ spiel?” Natasha teased.  
  
“First off, I don’t sound like that, second off, fuck you,”  
  
“Give it up, Barton, you like them,” she continued gleefully.  
  
Clint stared at his best friend for a long moment.  
  
“Aw, Nat… no,”  
  
“I love being right,” she said.  
  
Clint pointedly ignored her as he handed the coffee off to a customer that didn’t bother to thank him.  
  
“You’re a pain in my ass,” he hissed before starting on the next order. The last hour of his shift seemed to fly by thanks to playful banter with Natasha.  
  
“And that’s time,” she said excitedly.  
  
Clint tossed his towel to Kate who caught it without even looking and went to clock out for the day.

  
  


Toni sat criss cross on the coffee table while flicking through movies to watch on the TV. She could hear Carol and Steve playfully brag about their perspective military branches, Rhodes, James, and Sam were in an intense debate about which hobbit they would fight, and Bruce was on his phone (mostly) ignoring the others and chiming in on the hobbit conversation when the occasion called for it.  
  
“Oh! Got it!” Toni announced.  
  
“ _Mr. Barton and Ms. Romanoff are on their way up_ ,” JARVIS announced.  
  
“Let’s get the snacks!”  
  
Carol and Steve instantly broke from their banter to race each other to the communal kitchen for the snacks.  
  
“You’re all wrong by the way,” Bruce said to the others.  
  
Rhodes arched a lethal eyebrow.  
  
“You can’t fight a hobbit then you’ll have the whole Fellowship on your ass. You fight Legolas so that when he mops the floor with you, you’ll probably get avenged by one of the others,”  
  
Toni smirked and shook her head.  
  
“Stark! Did you get my snacks?” Natasha yelled as she stepped out of the elevator.  
  
“Can’t trip us up Natatat,”  
  
Carol and Steve returned with their arms ladened with snacks.  
  
“One day,” Nat promised.  
  
Toni scoffed and abandoned her seat on the coffee table before Carol and Steve dropped their armfuls of snacks on it. Clint snagged the frankly ridiculously large bag of red vines and sat next to James.  
  
“A man of refined taste,” James said, his voice warm and teasing.  
  
“Fuck you clucky,” Sam shot back, his own package of twizzlers on his lap.  
  
Clint grinned softly, not quite knowing how to respond to the teasing, he never was good with his words when he was flustered.  
  
“When you’re ready J,” Toni called. She settled down next to Clint and snagged one of his red vines.  
  
Toni was acutely aware of how close she was to Clint throughout the movie, every time their arms brushed- and she thought she was going to keel over and die when their hands brushed as they both reached for a red vine at the same time. Then his hand was resting on his leg, palm upturned and she lost what was left of her will. Her nails gently dragging up and down his upturned palm, it was something she liked to do to show affection when she didn’t feel like holding hands. She hoped Clint would understand the sentiment.  
  
The movie played with bouts of banter exploding from everyone on the couches, most of the time it ended up being quotes.

  
  


Clint lingered around the Tower until he was the only guest left, Nat had gotten a ride from Steve and Sam.  
  
“You need somethin’ there, Robin Hood?” James asked.  
  
“Just wanted to go over some things for our date,”  
  
Toni felt her heart leap at the word.  
  
“Yea?”  
  
“Well I’m off tomorrow night and there’s a nice place by my apartment- Mission Oaks Cafe- and maybe we could meet there? At 7?” he asked.  
  
“We’ll be there,” Toni promised.  
  
Clint flashed them a grin, it was both unsure and stunned. Toni could understand the feeling.  
  
“Well I should- I should get home,” he said, stumbling back toward the elevator.  
  
“Let us know when you’re home,” James said.  
  
Clint nodded and disappeared into the elevator, the gilded doors shut quietly.  
  
“It’s like… a real date, huh?” she asked.  
  
James snorted.  
  
“Yea, doll, it is,”  
  
She looked stunned.  
  
“And you had no faith in him,” she jested.  
  
“With the way he acted do you blame me?” James shot back, drawing her close.  
  
She gave a soft shrug, not quite meeting his eyes in a way that let him know he was right.

  
  


Toni and James stepped into the restaurant. James glanced around the room before his eyes fell on Clint, already seated at a table for three. James nudged Toni and gestured to the table and watched a stunning smile take over his soulmates face.  
  
“He’s here,” she murmured.  
  
“Well let’s not keep him waiting,”  
  
She started for the table, James watched her for just a moment, wondering- not for the first and certainly not for the last- if he was ready to let the press know about his and Toni’s relationship. But now there was Clint to think about so maybe telling the press could wait a while.  
  
“Thanks for coming,” Clint said quietly as James joined them at the table.  
  
“Well thanks for asking us,” Toni said just as quietly.  
  
“I want to apologize for how I acted the first time. I saw what I wanted to see, and I’m sorry,” Clint said to both of them.  
  
“And thank you for letting me… y’know try,” he finished.  
  
A waiter stopped by and set three glasses of water on the table before asking for their order, a burger, a steak, and fajitas. Toni glanced at James while Clint was ordering to find a small but lovestruck smile on his face. Whatever reservations he had about Clint must be falling away.  
  
Toni took a sip of her water, something warm unfurling in her stomach. He was trying.  
  
“You shoul’ ask her ‘bout the other soulmark,” James stage whispered to Clint.  
  
Clint’s head shot up to look at Toni, she looked uncharacteristically embarrassed. She set her water down and wiped at the condensation on it for a moment before telling the story.  
  
“When Rhodes and I were in college we got… drunk and got each other’s soulmarks tattooed on each other,” she said, trying to sound nonchalant.  
  
Clint struggled against the growing smile on his face.  
  
“In my defense he’s the light of my life,”  
  
“That’s fair. I lost a bet with Nat and now I have her widow on me,” Clint said.  
  
James snorted as Toni lit up.  
  
“I won that bet!”  
  
“What?”  
  
Toni nodded excitedly.  
  
“If you look really closely, she has a light blue arc reactor on her wrist,”  
  
Clint burst out laughing.  
  
“Where’s the Colonels?” Clint asked.  
  
Toni pointed to her side, right next to her breast.  
  
“It’s covered 99% of the time,” she said.  
  
“It’s the Air Force bird thing,” she added.  
  
“Oh we used to have fun back in our partying days,”  
  
“The Colonel doesn’t-?” Clint stopped his own stupid question.  
  
“The two greatest loves of his life- me, obviously, and Carol- don’t drink,” Toni said.  
  
The rest of the date went smoothly, they bantered with each other and everything felt easy and calm. 

  
  


“Isn’t that your girlfriends boyfriend?” Katie asked with a nod.  
  
Clint looked up sharply, expecting to see James. Instead he found James Rhodes sitting at a table.  
  
“He’s her best friend,” Clint said.  
  
“Yet she’s still your girlfriend,”  
  
Clint threw a rag at her which she neatly dodged. Katie was a brat. Clint wasn’t going to say hi to the Colonel, he really had no reason to. But this thoughts drifted to the arc reactor in Toni’s chest. Colonel Rhodes had found her in Afghanistan.  
  
“I’m taking my lunch,”  
  
“You’ve already had your lunch!”  
  
“I’m taking elevensies then,”  
  
She threw her hands up in exasperation but didn’t say anything further. Clint made a cup of black coffee and brought it to the Colonel.  
  
“Coffee?” he offered.  
  
Rhodes looked up from his phone, brightening at the offering.  
  
“Thanks,”  
  
Clint set the coffee in front of Rhodes, taking the empty seat at the table as he did so.  
  
“Toni told me a bit about the arc reactor, and I guess I was wondering how you found her, in Afghanistan,” Clint said slowly.  
  
For a moment he was afraid that Rhodes would tell him to fuck off- he deserved that much at least- but he didn’t.  
  
“It was a classic Toni Stark move,” Rhodes said, a half smile on his face.  
  
“She, and Yinsen, built this massive metal suit that was powered by the arc reactor. And she broke her way out. I know Yinsen didn’t make it out of the caves, and I know he changed her life. She broke out, she torched the base to the ground, blew her weapons to hell, and then she flew- don’t give me that look- she had rockets and she tore through the sky and crash landed a few miles south of the base,” Rhodes said.  
  
“That’s how I found her. I saw that explosion. And I knew instantly it was my girl,”  
  
Clint could almost imagine it. There was no other person he could imagine flying around in a clunky metal suit. Toni was eccentric like that.  
  
“Toni mentioned you finally got your head out of your ass,” Rhodes said.  
  
Clint ducked his head, rubbing the back of his neck but that didn’t stop his face from heating up with shame.  
  
“Guess I fucked up pretty bad in the beginning,”  
  
“That’s a pretty accurate description,” Rhodes agreed.  
  
“Could I get your help with something?” Clint asked suddenly.  
  
Rhodes glanced at him for a moment, dark eyes impassive.  
  
“I want to plan a party for Toni,” Clint said in a rush.  
  
There was a second where Rhodes didn’t move, then his dark eyes met Clint’s.  
  
“For what?”  
  
“Being sober since Afghanistan,”  
  
“She celebrates Carol, but not herself and James said she doesn’t think she deserves it, but I think she does,” Clint explained.  
  
The Colonel stared at him for a moment, Clint refused to look away from his burning gaze.  
  
“You’re right,” he said at last.  
  
Clint felt some of the tension leak out of his shoulders.  
  
“So what do you want to do about it?” Rhodes asked.  
  
Clint spent nearly his whole lunch break corroborating with Rhodes about the party they were going to have for Toni.  
  
It took a few weeks for Clint to plan the party. It was hard to be sneaky about things where Toni Stark was involved. But he got JARVIS on his side, and the rest followed easily- or it did until Clint tried inviting Harley. He was met with some backlash from the kid.  
  
Toni spent those weeks unaware at what Clint was planning. She was busy with SI, various Board meetings, and vaguing about Justin Hammer on twitter- which was her second favorite thing to do on twitter next to gushing about how much she loved James Rhodes.  
  
James spent those weeks fully aware of what Clint was up to, trying- and failing miserably- not to fall head over heels for him. He helped Clint where he could, which included helping Clint try to form an adequate apology to Harley for something that James didn’t want to know about. Inevitably Clint decided to go personally apologize to Harley. James was a goner. He even managed to keep Toni none the wiser about their soulmates impromptu trip to MIT.  
  
“Doll you gotta stop vaguing about Hammer on twitter,”  
  
“No,”  
  
“It’s gonna bite you on the ass,” he warned.  
  
“Oooh what’s he gonna do James? Build inferior technology?”  
  
James shook his head.

  
  


“When’s the party again?” Kate asked.  
  
The morning rush had ended and all that was left to do was wait for the lunch crowd to show up. Clint loved and hated days like that, he loved them because he didn’t have to deal with rude customers, he hated them because time moved far too slow for his liking.  
  
“Next week. James and Rhodes have been helping me plan everything, and Carol is getting a chip engraved and-”  
  
“Mr. Barton,”  
  
Clint looked up to see Toni’s driver, Happy Hogan.  
  
“I need you to come with me,”  
  
“My shift isn’t finished,”  
  
“Now,”  
  
Clint looked back at his coworkers, they looked as confused as he felt.  
  
“Ok,” he said slowly.  
  
He removed his apron and set it on the counter. Happy glanced out the window, expression tight. Clint rounded the counter and followed Happy to the waiting car.  
  
“You gonna tell me what’s going on?” Clint asked as he ducked into the car.  
  
“Ms. Stark can fill you in,”  
  
Clint nodded slowly.  
  
“Is she ok?”  
  
“Fine,”  
  
“James?”  
  
“Fine,”  
  
Clint frowned, trying to figure out what could possibly have happened to make Happy act like that. The drive to the Tower felt quicker than it ever had. He tried to hang onto the fact that his soulmates were fine, but even that didn’t keep him from worrying about the situation.  
  
“She’s in the penthouse,” Happy told them, gesturing to the private elevator.  
  
Clint got out of the car and shut the door behind him. The elevator doors slid open as he approached, no doubt JARVIS was waiting for him. JARVIS took up up to the penthouse.  
  
“Toni? What’s this about?” Clint asked when he stepped out of the elevator.  
  
Toni shot to her feet, her eyes rimmed red.  
  
“I’m so sorry,” she said.  
  
“What? Why?”  
  
“Fucking Tiberius Stone and that shithead Justin Hammer outed us,”  
  
Clint’s heart skipped a beat.  
  
“Us?”  
  
“As soulmates. I don’t know how they did it but the press knows about my marks, they know about you, they know about James,” she said in a rush.  
  
Clint stared at her.  
  
“H-how?”  
  
“Ty is an old fling. And Hammer hates my guts. Fuck,” she hissed.  
  
Out of habit Clint glanced around the room, it was unsettling empty. Clint had never been alone with Toni before.  
  
“Where’s James?”  
  
“I don’t know, I don’t know, he just took off the second it came out,” Toni said, still pacing in front of him.  
  
“Fuck. God I was always afraid he was going to split after the news got wind of who he was,”  
  
Clint grabbed her by her arms to still her.  
  
“Whatever James is doing, it is not leaving you,” he told her.  
  
Her sharp gaze focused on his.  
  
“Then where is he? What is he doing?” she asked, a tremor in her voice.  
  
“Knowing him, something stupid,”  
  
Toni leaned against him, hands gripping at his shirt.  
  
“I’m sorry,” she said again.  
  
“It’s gonna be ok,” Clint assured her.  
  
“I tried so hard… I was so careful, even with Ty. I don’t understand,” her head dropped to his chest as she spoke.  
  
Very slowly Clint wrapped his arms around her.  
  
“Whatever James is doing I’m sure it has more to do with him beating Stone and Hammer to a pulp than running from us,” he told her.  
  
“JARVIS, would you mind putting a movie on? Something she’ll enjoy?”  
  
JARVIS didn’t respond but the TV flicked to life. Clint gently ushered her to the couch and they sat down. She was still in his arms.

  
  


James stepped into the communal floor as Toni and Clint stood from the couch.  
  
“Where’d you go?” Toni asked, eyes glossy.  
  
“Went t’ remind Stone he signed an NDA about your soul marks,” he said.  
  
He pulled a Manila envelope from the inside of his jacket.  
  
“Signed by a witness ‘n everythin’,”  
  
“And then I talked with our lawyers and they’re gettin’ ready to sue the pants off Stone and Hammer,”  
  
Clint nudged Toni gently, a rough grin on his face.  
  
“Told you,”  
  
James set the envelope down on the nearest table and approached them.  
  
“Where’d you think I was doll?” he asked, wrapping his arms around her.  
  
“I thought you got spooked,” she admitted.  
  
“Doll please. If anythin’ is gonna spook me it’ll be your sleepin’ habits,” he teased.  
  
Toni huffed out a small laugh.  
  
“I ain’t leavin’ you. Neither of you,”  
  
Clint glanced up at the words, cheeks pink and eyes wide. James grabbed at him and pulled him into the hug and kissed his forehead before kissing the side of Toni’s head.  
  
“What have you two been up to?”  
  
“Jurassic Park,”  
  
It had been the movie of the night the first time Clint had joined them for movie night.  
  
“Oh now you’ve done it,”  
  
“The books better,” Toni whined petulantly as they parted from each other.  
  
“You say that like the movie is bad,”  
  
“I’m pretty sure I called it the only valid dinosaur movie,”  
  
“I thought that was about Jurassic Games,”  
  
Toni threw her arms up in exasperation collapsed on the couch, a pout on her face.  
  
“‘Lright J, keep going,”  
  
JARVIS played the movie as James and Clint joined her on the couch. It was like their first movie night, except it was the three of them and they were all pressed against each other.

  
  


Clint figured that once the world knew he was soulmates were Toni Stark and James Barnes, the life he led would be over. Shockingly, however, he was wrong. The first few days he got a lot of press trying to interview him at his work, but that was stopped by a one pissed off James Barnes. His favorite part of being in the spotlight were all the terrible trashy tabloid stories about him, they were all so tragically wrong and hilarious.

“Are you two keeping secrets from me?” Toni asked as Clint and James ushered her into the elevator.  
  
“Yes,” James said with a grin.  
  
“No,” Clint said at the same time.  
  
“You’re both written out of my will,” she muttered.  
  
“I didn’ know Dumpster Fire over here was in your will, doll,” James drawled.  
  
“ _He isn’t_ ,”  
  
Toni looked taken back by the sass from her boyfriend and her AI.  
  
“Fine. I’ll write him in and then write him out,”  
  
“ _That seems like a lot of paperwork, Ma’am_ ,”  
  
Toni frowned at that.  
  
“Fine, you can stay in the will. But you’re on thin fucking ice Barton,”  
  
Clint just grinned and leaned forward to gently kiss the side of her head. The elevator stopped at the communal floor and the doors opened with a quiet ding. The three stepped out into the room.  
  
Before them stood a large group of people, all of Toni’s favorite people, including her son and his soulmates. If she didn’t know any better she would call it a party, but what was there to celebrate? Her birthday was in May, and it certainly wasn’t Christmas yet.  
  
“Surprise,” James teased, rubbing her arms gently.  
  
“What is this?” Toni asked.  
  
“A party!”  
  
“I can see that, but… for what?” she asked.  
  
“ _It is the six year anniversary of your sobriety, Ma’am_ ,” JARVIS said.  
  
“I thought it was fucking stupid you didn’t celebrate it… so I changed that. This deserves to be celebrated Toni, you deserve this,” Clint said quietly.  
  
Toni turned to him, grabbed him by his shirt and hauled him in for a kiss. James, Carol, and Rhodes wolf whistled because they were assholes who enjoyed giving Toni a rough time.  
  
She let Clint go and he stumbled back a little, a stunned smile on his face. He rubbed the back of his neck and managed to let out a huff of surprise but still seemed quite unable to say anything.  
  
“What the hell,” she said, glancing at all her friends.  
  
“He’s right,” Carol said with a shrug.  
  
Harley was the first to approach her and hug her. Toni sniffed and hugged him back.  
  
“Hey kid,” she said softly.  
  
“Proud of you mom,”  
  
Toni jerked and pushed his face away. Harley just laughed and swatted her hands away.  
  
“Brat,” she said.  
  
Harley beamed at her as she dabbed her eyes.  
  
“Making me emotional,”  
  
“Well, let’s get this party fucking started!” MJ called.  
  
“Language!”  
  
She held up her hands in innocence as nearly 10 adults hurled the word at her. JARVIS started to play the party playlist and from there on it was all fun and games- and a few very dangerous rounds of Mario Kart and a few even more dangerous rounds of Super Smash Bros.  
  
“Ok! Ok! Before we descended to the weekly chaos that is movie night, I just wanna say a few words,” Carol called, tapping her glass hard enough to be heard over the cadence of the party.  
  
“I’ll make this quick. I don’t want Rhodes to cry,”  
  
Rhodes flipped her off.  
  
“I’m proud of you, Toni. That’s it. I’m so proud to know you, I’m so proud you’re my sponsor, and I love you very much,”  
  
Harley draped his arm over Toni’s shoulder.  
  
“Guess it’s my turn then,” Rhodes said, his eyes shiny. Out of his jacket pocket he pulled out a coin, just like the ones Toni made for Carol.  
  
“In honor of her sobriety I would like to present Antoinette Natasha Stark with a 6 year chip. Custom made,”  
  
Rhodes strode toward her and offered out the coin. Toni took it with shaking hands. The arc reactor was engraved and there was a big 6 in the middle.  
  
Toni wrapped her arms around him and promptly burst into tears.  
  
“Oh Tones,”

  
  


Clint, Toni, and James wound up smooshed together on the loveseat while a truly terrible horror movie played on the big screen. Toni couldn’t stop staring at her sobriety chip. It had been a very long 6 years. Did she really deserve it? She never really made the decision to stop drinking, it had happened because of Afghanistan.  
  
_But every day after you got home you made the choice to keep going, and I think that is what is worth celebrating_.  
  
That’s what Clint had said to her. And all of her friends had shown up to the party. Maybe he was right. Maybe she did deserve it. She twisted the coin in her fingers, a smile over taking her face. She leaned her head on Clint’s shoulder and felt him press a kiss to the top of her head.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [9 GOD DAMN MONTHS I'VE BEEN WORKING ON THIS. THAT'S A WHOLE ASS HUMAN PREGNANCY. I JUST GAVE BIRTH lmao anyway](http://www.lronhusbands.tumblr.com/)

**Author's Note:**

> [don't be mean to me i promise i'll fix everything in the next chapter](http://www.lronhusbands.tumblr.com/)


End file.
